Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Helen Santoro

Sludge @sludge.bsky.social · 17h

New York City's election today comes after hundreds of thousands of city residents made small donations that were matched in the public campaign financing program.

In 2021, a Brennan Center report found that NYC's matching option helped make city government more representative.

NYC Public Campaign Financing Program Leveled the Playing Field: Report

A new Brennan Center analysis found that New York City's small-dollar matching program was key in electing record numbers of women and people of color to City Council.

readsludge.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 18h

In the past 24 hours Elon Musk has sent 9 tweets either endorsing Andrew Cuomo, attacking Zohran Mamdani, or going after the voting process as a whole — and he's retweeted many more along the same lines.

Billionaire wealth and power are a threat to the democratic process.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 18h

Ben Ryan wrote an article in the New York Sun about our reporting.

Apparently, Wazzou's entire ability to accredit continuing medical education courses is under threat after our reporting revealed they accredited a hate group with pseudoscientific practices for CME classes.

Wow.

Ms. Keesey, who is the associate director of continuing education at WSU’s medical school, said in the email of ACCME’s demands: “We need to provide a written response by Nov 16 detailing our process for accrediting the 7 modules, how we ensured the evidence is fair and balanced etc.” She expressed concern that if an investigation came down against the medical school, WSU could be put on probation by the ACCME or even lose its authority to accredit CMEs outright.

“I am very sorry about this situation—I’ve never seen anything like this from a national accrediting body,” Ms. Keesey wrote.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: The Trump administration says it will pay SNAP benefits reduced by 50% to the 22 million households enrolled in the program.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 1d

The combined wealth of the 10 richest people in America jumped $698 billion over the past year.

This figure was supercharged by Donald Trump’s tax giveaways to his fellow billionaires.

www.thedailybeast.com/wealth-of-am...

Wealth of America’s Richest Billionaires Rockets Under Trump

“The rise of a new American oligarchy” is underway, according to an Oxfam study.

www.thedailybeast.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 4d

I’m pleased to announce that following our reporting, multiple people have reported that a formal inquiry is being made into SEGM’s accreditation, and that the CME courses are at least temporarily pulled down.

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 6d

1. Washington State University has credentialed an anti-trans, conversion therapy org SEGM to teach CMEs to medical providers.

The panel is filled with the most vitriolic of anti-trans activists.

Unsuspecting providers may be taught harmful practices.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers

The Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine an anti-LGBTQ hate group for its role in proliferating pseudoscience and transphobic policies.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

The Lever @levernews.com · 8d

🚨 BREAKING: Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will issue guidance blocking states from wiping medical debt off credit reports — siding with debt collectors over patients. The move could keep $220 billion in medical bills on Americans’ records.

www.levernews.com/trump-aims-t...

Trump Aims To Infect Your Credit

Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying to stop states from wiping medical debt from your credit report.

www.levernews.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 6d

This was just posted by a CBS News producer on their Instagram stories.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 7d

UPS just said they've cut 48,000 jobs this year.

Its stock jumped up after the announcement.

www.reuters.com/business/wor...

UPS cut 48,000 jobs so far in 2025

United Parcel Service said on Tuesday it has cut 48,000 jobs so far this year.

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 8d

I am interested in starting to hear from care workers on SNAP about your concerns. I'm @motherjones.com's disability reporter. Please be in touch. My email is [email protected] and my Signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts are appreciated.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 12d

1. A groundbreaking new study published in Nature Medicine shows that feminizing hormone therapy shifts trans women's blood protein to resemble cis women after only 6 months.

HRT really is effective and changes the human body heaivly.

The latest from S. Baum.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Study Finds Trans Women's Blood Proteins Resemble Cis Women's After 6 Months on HR

“Feminizing GAHT [gender-affirming hormone treatment] skews the plasma proteome toward a cis-female profile,” the study concluded.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 11d

Friends - join us in Denver on 11/13 for our first in-person gathering.

The Lever's whole team will be here, and we'd love to meet you in person.

There will be good food, good drinks and good people.

RSVP at the link below - it's free admission. Pass it on!

Master Plan | Book Launch Party

Join The Lever for a special in-person event in Denver, Colorado, on November 13, 2025, celebrating the release of Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America, the new book by David...

the.levernews.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 12d

For what it’s worth, the agreement - while very bad - is much less targeted towards trans students than I have seen in other college agreements. There is no definition of sex, no explicit bans (but one sort of implicit convoluted one), and even leaves an out for “relevant court decisions.”

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 13d

Breaking News: The University of Virginia struck an agreement with the White House to remove the threat of a federal investigation, part of a Trump pressure campaign. It's the first public university to do so. nyti.ms/3Wgo2JR

A brick and white building at the University of Virginia. A headline reads: "Amid Trump's Campus Crackdown, UVA Is the First Public University to Cut a Deal." Photo credit: Kirsten Luce for The New York Times.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 13d

I'm receiving word from readers that Fenway Health has now cancelled a planned event teaching about transgender health for continuing education.

Fenway has fallen too far and they are letting fear steer the wheel.

And they can't face the community.

Course Postponed: Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health: A Core Course for the Whole Care Team

Good Afternoon,

We are writing to notify you that the continuing education course “Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health: A Core Course for the Whole Care Team,” which is offered and developed by the Fenway Institute and accredited by Harvard Medical School, has been postponed and will not be held Oct. 24-26 as planned. The course will be rescheduled for later this academic year, and we will be in touch as soon as the new date is set. In the meantime, we will be refunding your course fees. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 13d

In a posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre writes that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times, beginning when she was 17, and was beaten and raped by a “well-known prime minister."

“Nobody's Girl”: Virginia Giuffre's Memoir Details Sex Abuse by Epstein, Maxwell, Prince Andrew

Virginia Roberts Giuffre's posthumous memoir has just been released, detailing how she was groomed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, whom she met at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort. In Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abu...

www.democracynow.org

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 13d

If you want anti-establishment candidates, then there's only one big takeaway from @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's ascent. The rest of the media chatter about the lessons of his campaign aims to distract you from the one thing that the oligarchy most fears & that was the biggest factor in his success.

How Zohran Mamdani Fought The Master Plan

The key factor isn’t his ads or charisma — it is a public campaign finance system that can be replicated across the country.

www.levernews.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Nsikan Akpan @monscience.bsky.social · 13d

SNAP benefits to halt in some states amid government shutdown -- Jay O'Brien / ABC News abcnews.go.com/Politics/sta...

SNAP benefits to halt in some states amid government shutdown

SNAP serves roughly 42 million low-income Americans.

abcnews.go.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 22d

Senate is back in session today.

1/ So a quick 🧵on where things are at on the shutdown.

You get a lot of propaganda and spin thrown at you, so I want to give you the real, behind-the-scenes tea.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 21d

BREAKING: 45,000 health care workers just launched the biggest strike of the year.

Workers at Kaiser Permanente on the West Coast and in Hawaii have walked out to secure a contract.

These essential workers are fighting for patient care, good wages, and decent staffing.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 25d

If you are a paying subscriber to The Washington Post, this is what you get.

If you are a free subscriber to Democracy Docket, this is what you get.

Support independent, pro-democracy media. Sign up now. hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

GLEN JACKSON @glenjackson.bsky.social · 27d

The shot has been used by roughly one in four sexually active #women in the United States, bringing in hundreds of millions in #profits annually for the pharmaceutical behemoth #Pfizer, which manufactures and distributes the #drug
@helenwsantoro.bsky.social
@levernews.com

Brain Tumors, Big Pharma, And A Legal Escape Hatch

Women say Depo-Provera caused their brain tumors. Pfizer is invoking a powerful legal maneuver to try to silence them.

www.levernews.com

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28d

Fixed.

Screenshot of a New York Times webpage. The headline reads: “Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy Torture.” The words “Conversion Therapy” are shown with red strikethroughs. A smaller subheading below explains: “Colorado and over 20 other states have banned the practice aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of young people.” The page header includes links like “Birthright Citizenship,” “L.A. Immigration Stops,” “Unsigned Orders in Trump’s Favor,” and “Florida Immigration.”

Would you like me to also provide a shorter, accessibility-friendly version of the alt text (like what a screen reader would ideally read aloud), or keep this more detailed one?

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 28d

Actually, I think the far-right is accurately identifying an existential issue.

So many of the most vehement far-right were either heavily bullied or did the bullying.

Teaching empathy to the next generation is fundamentally at odds with conservative political philosophy.

That's why they hate it.

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Helen Santoro @helenwsantoro.bsky.social · 29d

Absolutely! Very glad you enjoyed it.

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Reposted by Helen Santoro

Natalie Bettendorf @natalierbett.bsky.social · 29d

Over at @levernews.com, we investigated how one-stop real estate shops like Zillow and Redfin may actually be hurting homebuyers – and the U.S. economy.

For today's Lever Time episode, I spoke with @helenwsantoro.bsky.social about what her reporting uncovered: www.levernews.com/the-zillow-a...

The Zillow And Redfin Convenience Trap

Buying a home has never been easier — so what’s the catch?

www.levernews.com

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